


Made of Late Night Conversations (Our Love)

by Brookeks



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Adult Shop Owner Barry, Alternate Universe, Blindfolds, Blow Jobs, Bottom Barry Allen, Breathplay, Deepthroating, Dildos, First Dates gone... not wrong but not as intended either, Flirting, Handcuffs, Kink Negotiation, M/M, Nude Photos, Pining, Rimming, Sexting, Tattoo Artist Len, Top Leonard Snart, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Gift Exchange
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 03:10:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17758649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brookeks/pseuds/Brookeks
Summary: For weeks, Len has been pining after the cute, innocent looking guy who, ironically, owns the sex shop across the street. When he finds his affections being returned, a new muse for his tattoo ideas is not the only thing he gains.





	Made of Late Night Conversations (Our Love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cassandrasfisher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandrasfisher/gifts).



> Gift for [cassandrasfisher](https://cassandrasfisher.tumblr.com/) for the Valentine's Day Gift Exchange.  
> To be honest, when I first received your prompts, I went like 'oh okay, this is easy, this I can work with', but then I grew... incredibly insecure of my writing and the whole plot, so basically I changed the prompt and the story multiple times. Eventually, I settled on _"tattoo shop owner (salon, sister or friend owns other half), other half of the building: adult shop owner"_. Well, I made them neighbours having their shops across the street from one another, but that counts, right?  
> I hope you'll like your gift and it's at least a little like what you had in mind. Enjoy! <3

Len had opened this tattoo parlour about fifteen years ago together with his best friend and (literal) partner in crime. Having been in prison doesn’t look that well on one’s resume, and, well, he’s always had dreamt of one day doing proper, good tattoos, with quality equipment unlike what had been available in Iron Heights. (Besides, owning a tattoo shop was a good front for his… other business.)

Over the years his shop had grown, and other artists with their own unique styles had joined him. They were like a family, now, sticking together and looking out for each other. Over the years, a lot of shops in their street had vanished, may it be due to insolvency or police raids, cracking down shady businesses and bringing a whole lot of people behind bars.

Every one of the old shops had vanished by now, and the only others left in the street were a small convenience store, his parlour, and a sex shop.

A sex shop, where the probably most gorgeous man he had ever laid eyes on, worked.

Currently, Len didn't have a customer and was cleaning up his workplace, checking his tattoo guns and arranging the colours for his next customer who had his appointment in a few minutes. So, naturally, his eyes kept straying out of the window to the adult shop, where he could see this perfection of a man helping a customer pick out a dildo. While wearing extremely tight leather pants. It was not a distracting sight at all.

“Are you checking out the kid again, boss?”

“He can’t be a kid if he owns a sex shop, Mick.”

Mick laughed. They had had that conversation so many times already by now. Not that it changed anything. And the man—Allen, he was called, as Len had found out from one of his... research sessions—was quite baby faced, after all. He couldn’t be older than twenty-five. Maybe twenty-seven or twenty-eight, max.

“If he’s not a kid, then why haven’t you made a move yet? You’re usually not this slow.”

Len sighed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, or hadn’t thought about what would be the best way to approach him. Or that he hadn’t already made a dozen of plans, but thrown over every single one of them. He couldn't just walk inside the shop and ask for a date, after all, not when probably every third customer or so of Allen's surely asked him out on a date just like that. (Or just for sex. Some people were that bold.)

“Lenny,” Lisa chimed in from her station, where she currently was tattooing a young girl, creating delicate flowers, a mix of roses, peonies, and lavender, along her waist and thorax. “You’ve been pining after this guy for, what? Months?”

Ever since he had first seen him when he had joined the shop as assistant manager along his adopted sister, but that was beside the point. He didn’t even know why he knew that Mr. Allen was the assistant manager there. Or that the beautiful woman he saw there every day was, in fact, not his girlfriend, but his sister.

“It’s Valentine’s Day soon. You should ask him out. There might not be a better chance.”

“Valentine’s Day,” he deadpanned. "Are you serious?"

“Perfect opportunity, boss. If he says yes, check mate, if he says no… well, you can always blame it on not wanting to be alone on overtly commertialized day of true love.”

“Um, I really think you should do it, Len,” now Lisas's customer (Shawna? Yeah, that was her name) said. “Life’s short. Maybe if you won’t do it, you’ll regret that decision for the rest of your life. And, well, he can’t do more than say no, can he?”

Len looked up from his tattoo gun, pausing his cleaning. Lisa smiled smugly, and the girl blushed a little, though looking challenging over to him.

“She’s right. Stop moping, and do something about it.”

The bell at the door rang, and Len rolled his eyes. “We’ll see about that.” He strutted over to the entrance where his next customer stood waiting, just right on time. Len liked him instantly.

Over the next two hours, he didn’t have a chance to think about Mr. Allen or about his sister’s totally idiotic suggestion to ask him on a date. The young man, Cisco, had requested a custom tattoo. He had made the design himself, and Len had to admit, the kid had talent. If he wouldn’t be working at a research lab as a scientist while occasionally designing clothes for one of the most high-end fashion labels here in Central City, Len would ask him if he was interested in an apprenticeship as a tattoo artist. Though apparently he had tattooed something, once, when he was still in college. The kid was a talker.

At the end, he had indeed managed to push Allen’s gorgeous face to the back of his mind, but that all went to shit when he was closing up the shop. Lisa and Mick had gone home already (but not before Lisa hadn’t gotten Cisco’s number, leaving Cisco positively floating and grinning like a goddamn idiot), and he usually liked to take his time cleaning things up and preparing everything for the next day.

It was just as he was turning around to walk down the street to his apartment that a movement behind him caught his eye.

Allen stood at the doorstep of his shop, turning the key in the lock, closing up equally.

Blood rushed to Len’s face, and to other places in his body. In the dark light of the night, Len could just make out his lithe silhouette, but the way his back curved when he leaned forward, or his neck was exposed, and his butt looked so good in those pants. It made Len feel things, and it released a hunger to devour what was in front of him.

Maybe Allen had realized someone was staring at him, because he paused in his actions and slowly turned around. When he spotted Len, his face lit up and smiled broadly with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

“Hello,” he said, his words echoing in the empty street. He turned around again, and Len felt a little dismissed, but Allen just pulled the key from the lock and then turned around again, walking over to him.

 _Walking over to him_. He stopped a few paces in front of him, but stood right in the light of the street lamp. He was even more gorgeous than Len could've told from afar.

“I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you,” Allen said, a faint blush creeping up his cheeks. He scratched his neck with one hand, looking down at his feet and then up again at Len from under his long lashes.

“I’m Barry, by the way. Barry Allen.”

 _Barry_. Cute. “Hello, Barry. I’m Len.” He stepped forward and extended his hand, which Barry took so quickly his movement looked like a blur. His hand was warm and soft, unlike Len’s own calloused hands that always seemed to be cold.

“Pleasure to meet you.”

“Well, the pleasure is all mine, Barry,” Len drawled. He felt like there was a spark of electricity running from Barry over his body.

He let go of his hand because it was slowly getting awkward by now. “So, how come a guy like you owns a sex shop?” He waved his hand lazily over to the general direction of the sex shop.

Barry spluttered, blushing fiercely. “A guy like me?”

“Someone looking so innocent, I just… wouldn’t have expected it.” He shrugged and shook his head. Damn it. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t very…”

“Smooth? Yeah, no, not really,” Barry laughed.

“I meant nice, or flattering, but yeah it wasn’t very smooth either.” Fuck. He might just have ruined his perfect chance to get to know Barry better, but of course he had to go and fuck up already, within the first minute of talking to him.

“It’s okay, don’t worry. I get it, though. I look younger than I actually am, and people make assumptions based on that. But… well, it also has its perks. And I’ve been told that it fits my kinks, so there’s that?”

Oh, wow, that was one way to start a conversation. Maybe hadn’t ruined his chance after all. “Your kinks?”

“M-hm. I have many of them.”

Of course he had. “Well, isn’t that interesting.” The blush on Barry’s cheeks had vanished. “I’d love to find out more about those kinks.”

“That could be arranged, I think.” The blush was back. It looked so _endearing_. “Well, if you want, I could … exchange numbers? And, um, you can come by the shop anytime, I’m mostly there anywhere.”

“I’d love to see more of the… shop, and the items you're selling.” He smirked. Fishing in his pant pocket, he pulled out one of his business card and one of the pens he always carried around. “Here.” He scribbled his number down and handed Barry the card. “You can call me anytime you want. Or come by the shop.”

“And get a tattoo?”

Well, that opened a whole box of new possibilities. “If you want to. It’s been a while since I had someone as pretty as you as my canvas.”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ll still think of me as pretty when you see what other tattoo artists have done to my skin.”

“Oh? How many tattoos do you have?”

“Just one. But it’s… well, it’s not actually something I’d want to show off.” He shrugged.

Was it really… Len couldn’t help himself. The laughter poured from his mouth, he couldn’t stop himself. “Well, I can’t believe how wrong I’ve been about you, Barry Allen. I’d never thought you’d be the kinda guy to get a tramp stamp of all things of a tattoo.”

He looked bashful, but Barry was smiling broadly. “Yeah, well, I have nothing to say in my defence, really. I just got into college, got my first boyfriend, experimented with him a lot. Sexually, and, like, weed and stuff.”

He didn’t continue, but Len had an idea what would have followed next. He groaned. “You got your tattoo while you were high?”

“Not the smartest idea, I know.”

“Oh, boy.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad!”

“It’s an absolute nightmare for every serious tattoo artist!” Still, the idea of this sweet man having a tramp stamp… still didn’t fit in Len’s mind. “You regretting it?”

“I… yeah, I guess. Though maybe not really. I’ve always thought of getting a cover up, you know, but somehow… It reminds me of that time and warns me not to do such a thing again. And I don’t mean just the tattoo.” He shrugged. The smile had gone.

Len tried to think of a way to steer the conversation back towards a little happier territory. There obviously had something happened, but he didn’t ask. He might be noisy and very intrigued about it, but he knew when he was overstepping his boundaries. Hell, they haven't even been talking for five minutes and his emotions were already messier than ever.

“Well, if you ever change your mind about that cover up… I’ll be here for you. I’ve done quite a lot of cover-ups over the years, not just old tattoos, but also… scars and the like.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.”

Len nodded. “No problem.”

Silence fell and stretched out, neither of them saying a word. Len had about a hundred questions running through his mind, but he didn’t dare asking. It seemed too personal, or inappropriate for the current situation.

After a few seconds of awkward staring, Len accepted defeat. “I should get home,” he said with a sigh. Barry’s shoulders fell a little, but he caught himself quickly again.

“Yeah, me too, probably. Though I’m probably late for dinner already. And Joe is very serious when it comes to punctuality at dinner time.”

“Joe?” He balled his hands up to fists and released them again.

“He’s my foster dad. After college, I couldn’t find something affordable so… I moved back in with him, just temporarily. Iris is in the midst of moving out, anyway, so it’s good for him, as well, and he doesn’t have to feel like both his kids are leaving him alone.” He laughed.

Len could tell how much Barry loved his family, the way his eyes shone so brightly when talking about them.

“Then I won’t steal any more of your time. For now.”

He let out a laugh again. “I’m usually against stealing but… I think I could make an exception with you.”

“Hm, don’t say it like that. I might be tempted to snatch you away right here.”

“Now you’re tempting me.” Len felt like he could lose himself in Barry’s smile. Damn, doid he get sappy.

“It was nice talking to you, Len.” He held the business card up and twisted it around playfully between his fingers. “Guess we’ll see each other again?”

“I hope so.”

Barry smiled again, and a faint blush was creeping up his cheeks. Then he turned around and walked down the street, his silhouette illuminated by the orange street lamps. Even from afar, he looked absolutely stunning.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it (so far...)  
> Tell me what you think in the comments! And here is my [tumblr](http://www.itsbrookeks.tumblr.com), if you want to say hi or have a chat with me! ♥


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